starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »And no as far as I know tempers are not going to be sold in the cash shop (not yet anyway but we're heading that way.) So you're either not getting the relationship between something being exceedingly grindy in the game driving cash shop sales or you're just pretending not to... I suspect it's the later.
Or I understand that, simply by creating a need, you don't automatically start selling something if you don't make it available.
If ZOS was selling tempers, then you'd have a point. "Oh, look, they're putting pressure on the market to get people to buy them." But, you can't buy any of the things you get with vouchers. Maybe the Ebony Motif at some point. But, unless they're selling the crafting stations... that's not an option.
It doesn't drive people to the store, if you're not selling what you drove the demand up for.
Seriously. I understand the idea behind F2P games that lock things behind horrific grind routes, and then turn around and let you buy your way past. That's a problem. But, if there's no way to buy your way past these barriers, it's not about using the grind to push you towards buying stuff.
Again, if ZOS doesn't sell it, you can't buy it. If you can't buy it, then promoting grind is about keeping players in the game, working towards goals, not about lining your own pockets directly.
Maybe you shouldn't assume that furnishings, which are the end goal of using those tempers, are not going to be sold in the cash shop. Selling or not selling tempers is irrelevant when they're just a means to an end.
Furnishing sales is not on the PTS... yet. But what IS in the PTS is the ability to buy a house from the cash shop FURNISHED... that extra cost is just adding a furnishings bundle and selling that instead of piece by piece.
And you can bet that "piece by piece" will also be sold either directly or through inclusion in crown crates or both.
Assuming the version presented on the PTS is what goes live... furniture is sold directly through the housing interface. Pieces range from 50 crowns up to 400. Thing is, I can't remember seeing any gold furniture in the list of stuff they were selling. Now, that could change, obviously. But, it was mostly white through blue, with a few purple pieces (the ones running for 400). Also, I'm not 100% certain, but I think most of that was also available via crafting. The ones you buy get marked with a crown icon in the interface.
Now, they probably will add furniture to future crown crates, but... I'm not seeing anything in that entire system, aside from the attunable stations and the DPS dummies that will really compel players to cough up cash for them unless they have really limited self control.
Well like I already said, good salesmen never make you think they're forcing you. They just steer you in certain directions.
I was really looking forward to housing but the grind for getting the things in it that most appeal to me: attunable crafting stations, the target skeleton and crafting furnishings, are totally turning me off to the whole thing.
Marketing is about creating a need, then providing a means to satisfy it. Yeah, I know. Which is why I'm saying, if you're not offering an out, you're not selling anything. We're talking about marketing, not sorcery here.
Also, look, if you want the rare stuff in this game, you're going to need to grind. Nothing has changed. That's been true of getting yellow gear from the beginning. That was true of the V16 gear when it was added. That was true of the Glass Motif... oh god, the Glass Motif. That was true of the monster sets for a long time (still is, if you want the BIS traits). It's been true of the XP pots, and more true of the Aetheric versions.
MMOs include a lot of grind. It's part of the genre, and dates back to when your only options were to subscribe or not. The grind was about keeping people in the games and playing back then. And that hasn't really changed. If ZOS was letting people skirt around the grind by coughing up cash, then that would be one thing. They're only doing that with the cosmetic crap. Not the stuff that's actually valuable and useful.
EDIT: Hell, if you hated the idea of grind, have you seen the threads on vMA grinding? Seriously?
Yeah I know that we have grind as do all MMORPGs. But games, for good reason, have a mix of not so grindy, grind and very grindy. If everything is a PITA grind, only Koreans will play it
Furnishing crafting takes crafting grind to a whole new level relative to all other crafting in this game.
Not really. I mean, some of the big purple ones, yeah, but most of the stuff you'd actually be using doesn't chew up nearly as much. Again, the major exception seems to be the common style stones, which can be purchased for gold.
The insane thing with furniture is the gold costs on some of the larger achievement awards. There's a couple 100k statues mixed in there, and a lot that are in the 25k+ range. Furniture crafting is way cheaper than it looks in most cases, though.
Yeah really:
- Furnishing mat drops from nodes are not quite nirncrux rare, but they're rare.
- The mat requirements of those already rare furnishing mats are high.
- Furnishing recipe drops are close to the rarity of blue style book drops. Nothing like provisioning recipe drops.
If it was only the very high end, exclusive furnishings crafting gated behind grind, I'd have no problem: that would be consistent with the ESO grind.
But that's not the case. Even common mundane white items are way too grindy to make.
starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »And no as far as I know tempers are not going to be sold in the cash shop (not yet anyway but we're heading that way.) So you're either not getting the relationship between something being exceedingly grindy in the game driving cash shop sales or you're just pretending not to... I suspect it's the later.
Or I understand that, simply by creating a need, you don't automatically start selling something if you don't make it available.
If ZOS was selling tempers, then you'd have a point. "Oh, look, they're putting pressure on the market to get people to buy them." But, you can't buy any of the things you get with vouchers. Maybe the Ebony Motif at some point. But, unless they're selling the crafting stations... that's not an option.
It doesn't drive people to the store, if you're not selling what you drove the demand up for.
Seriously. I understand the idea behind F2P games that lock things behind horrific grind routes, and then turn around and let you buy your way past. That's a problem. But, if there's no way to buy your way past these barriers, it's not about using the grind to push you towards buying stuff.
Again, if ZOS doesn't sell it, you can't buy it. If you can't buy it, then promoting grind is about keeping players in the game, working towards goals, not about lining your own pockets directly.
Maybe you shouldn't assume that furnishings, which are the end goal of using those tempers, are not going to be sold in the cash shop. Selling or not selling tempers is irrelevant when they're just a means to an end.
Furnishing sales is not on the PTS... yet. But what IS in the PTS is the ability to buy a house from the cash shop FURNISHED... that extra cost is just adding a furnishings bundle and selling that instead of piece by piece.
And you can bet that "piece by piece" will also be sold either directly or through inclusion in crown crates or both.
Assuming the version presented on the PTS is what goes live... furniture is sold directly through the housing interface. Pieces range from 50 crowns up to 400. Thing is, I can't remember seeing any gold furniture in the list of stuff they were selling. Now, that could change, obviously. But, it was mostly white through blue, with a few purple pieces (the ones running for 400). Also, I'm not 100% certain, but I think most of that was also available via crafting. The ones you buy get marked with a crown icon in the interface.
Now, they probably will add furniture to future crown crates, but... I'm not seeing anything in that entire system, aside from the attunable stations and the DPS dummies that will really compel players to cough up cash for them unless they have really limited self control.
Well like I already said, good salesmen never make you think they're forcing you. They just steer you in certain directions.
I was really looking forward to housing but the grind for getting the things in it that most appeal to me: attunable crafting stations, the target skeleton and crafting furnishings, are totally turning me off to the whole thing.
Marketing is about creating a need, then providing a means to satisfy it. Yeah, I know. Which is why I'm saying, if you're not offering an out, you're not selling anything. We're talking about marketing, not sorcery here.
Also, look, if you want the rare stuff in this game, you're going to need to grind. Nothing has changed. That's been true of getting yellow gear from the beginning. That was true of the V16 gear when it was added. That was true of the Glass Motif... oh god, the Glass Motif. That was true of the monster sets for a long time (still is, if you want the BIS traits). It's been true of the XP pots, and more true of the Aetheric versions.
MMOs include a lot of grind. It's part of the genre, and dates back to when your only options were to subscribe or not. The grind was about keeping people in the games and playing back then. And that hasn't really changed. If ZOS was letting people skirt around the grind by coughing up cash, then that would be one thing. They're only doing that with the cosmetic crap. Not the stuff that's actually valuable and useful.
EDIT: Hell, if you hated the idea of grind, have you seen the threads on vMA grinding? Seriously?
Yeah I know that we have grind as do all MMORPGs. But games, for good reason, have a mix of not so grindy, grind and very grindy. If everything is a PITA grind, only Koreans will play it
Furnishing crafting takes crafting grind to a whole new level relative to all other crafting in this game.
Not really. I mean, some of the big purple ones, yeah, but most of the stuff you'd actually be using doesn't chew up nearly as much. Again, the major exception seems to be the common style stones, which can be purchased for gold.
The insane thing with furniture is the gold costs on some of the larger achievement awards. There's a couple 100k statues mixed in there, and a lot that are in the 25k+ range. Furniture crafting is way cheaper than it looks in most cases, though.
Yeah really:
- Furnishing mat drops from nodes are not quite nirncrux rare, but they're rare.
- The mat requirements of those already rare furnishing mats are high.
- Furnishing recipe drops are close to the rarity of blue style book drops. Nothing like provisioning recipe drops.
If it was only the very high end, exclusive furnishings crafting gated behind grind, I'd have no problem: that would be consistent with the ESO grind.
But that's not the case. Even common mundane white items are way too grindy to make.
See, now that's the one thing I never bothered to check. Because who's going to go farming mats on the PTS? Though, as I recall, just grabbing nodes on reflex paid out with a handful. So, yeah, "not nirncrux rare," indeed.
starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »And no as far as I know tempers are not going to be sold in the cash shop (not yet anyway but we're heading that way.) So you're either not getting the relationship between something being exceedingly grindy in the game driving cash shop sales or you're just pretending not to... I suspect it's the later.
Or I understand that, simply by creating a need, you don't automatically start selling something if you don't make it available.
If ZOS was selling tempers, then you'd have a point. "Oh, look, they're putting pressure on the market to get people to buy them." But, you can't buy any of the things you get with vouchers. Maybe the Ebony Motif at some point. But, unless they're selling the crafting stations... that's not an option.
It doesn't drive people to the store, if you're not selling what you drove the demand up for.
Seriously. I understand the idea behind F2P games that lock things behind horrific grind routes, and then turn around and let you buy your way past. That's a problem. But, if there's no way to buy your way past these barriers, it's not about using the grind to push you towards buying stuff.
Again, if ZOS doesn't sell it, you can't buy it. If you can't buy it, then promoting grind is about keeping players in the game, working towards goals, not about lining your own pockets directly.
Maybe you shouldn't assume that furnishings, which are the end goal of using those tempers, are not going to be sold in the cash shop. Selling or not selling tempers is irrelevant when they're just a means to an end.
Furnishing sales is not on the PTS... yet. But what IS in the PTS is the ability to buy a house from the cash shop FURNISHED... that extra cost is just adding a furnishings bundle and selling that instead of piece by piece.
And you can bet that "piece by piece" will also be sold either directly or through inclusion in crown crates or both.
Assuming the version presented on the PTS is what goes live... furniture is sold directly through the housing interface. Pieces range from 50 crowns up to 400. Thing is, I can't remember seeing any gold furniture in the list of stuff they were selling. Now, that could change, obviously. But, it was mostly white through blue, with a few purple pieces (the ones running for 400). Also, I'm not 100% certain, but I think most of that was also available via crafting. The ones you buy get marked with a crown icon in the interface.
Now, they probably will add furniture to future crown crates, but... I'm not seeing anything in that entire system, aside from the attunable stations and the DPS dummies that will really compel players to cough up cash for them unless they have really limited self control.
Well like I already said, good salesmen never make you think they're forcing you. They just steer you in certain directions.
I was really looking forward to housing but the grind for getting the things in it that most appeal to me: attunable crafting stations, the target skeleton and crafting furnishings, are totally turning me off to the whole thing.
Marketing is about creating a need, then providing a means to satisfy it. Yeah, I know. Which is why I'm saying, if you're not offering an out, you're not selling anything. We're talking about marketing, not sorcery here.
Also, look, if you want the rare stuff in this game, you're going to need to grind. Nothing has changed. That's been true of getting yellow gear from the beginning. That was true of the V16 gear when it was added. That was true of the Glass Motif... oh god, the Glass Motif. That was true of the monster sets for a long time (still is, if you want the BIS traits). It's been true of the XP pots, and more true of the Aetheric versions.
MMOs include a lot of grind. It's part of the genre, and dates back to when your only options were to subscribe or not. The grind was about keeping people in the games and playing back then. And that hasn't really changed. If ZOS was letting people skirt around the grind by coughing up cash, then that would be one thing. They're only doing that with the cosmetic crap. Not the stuff that's actually valuable and useful.
EDIT: Hell, if you hated the idea of grind, have you seen the threads on vMA grinding? Seriously?
Yeah I know that we have grind as do all MMORPGs. But games, for good reason, have a mix of not so grindy, grind and very grindy. If everything is a PITA grind, only Koreans will play it
Furnishing crafting takes crafting grind to a whole new level relative to all other crafting in this game.
Not really. I mean, some of the big purple ones, yeah, but most of the stuff you'd actually be using doesn't chew up nearly as much. Again, the major exception seems to be the common style stones, which can be purchased for gold.
The insane thing with furniture is the gold costs on some of the larger achievement awards. There's a couple 100k statues mixed in there, and a lot that are in the 25k+ range. Furniture crafting is way cheaper than it looks in most cases, though.
Yeah really:
- Furnishing mat drops from nodes are not quite nirncrux rare, but they're rare.
- The mat requirements of those already rare furnishing mats are high.
- Furnishing recipe drops are close to the rarity of blue style book drops. Nothing like provisioning recipe drops.
If it was only the very high end, exclusive furnishings crafting gated behind grind, I'd have no problem: that would be consistent with the ESO grind.
But that's not the case. Even common mundane white items are way too grindy to make.
See, now that's the one thing I never bothered to check. Because who's going to go farming mats on the PTS? Though, as I recall, just grabbing nodes on reflex paid out with a handful. So, yeah, "not nirncrux rare," indeed.
Who's going to go farming them? Anyone interested on knowing first hand what the drop rates are like lol.
Crowns items are for fluff, you don't need it.
You don`t need to buy the game... or even a computer. That is a very flawed argument.
The only argument, since you are here and playing the game, is about getting the full content as a subscriber and person who is paying.
And right now they are making the choice be between farming for years or getting it instantly via cash. That is no actual choice.
DaveMoeDee wrote: »Crowns items are for fluff, you don't need it.
You don`t need to buy the game... or even a computer. That is a very flawed argument.
The only argument, since you are here and playing the game, is about getting the full content as a subscriber and person who is paying.
And right now they are making the choice be between farming for years or getting it instantly via cash. That is no actual choice.
There is another choice. Realizing they are useless houses and not wasting time on them.
If you feel entitled to having everything, you are going to be disappointed. Your unreasonable demands are what are causing your dissatisfaction.
DaveMoeDee wrote: »Crowns items are for fluff, you don't need it.
You don`t need to buy the game... or even a computer. That is a very flawed argument.
The only argument, since you are here and playing the game, is about getting the full content as a subscriber and person who is paying.
And right now they are making the choice be between farming for years or getting it instantly via cash. That is no actual choice.
There is another choice. Realizing they are useless houses and not wasting time on them.
If you feel entitled to having everything, you are going to be disappointed. Your unreasonable demands are what are causing your dissatisfaction.
starkerealm wrote: »NewBlacksmurf wrote: »starkerealm wrote: »NewBlacksmurf wrote: »You're trying to change the context.
Not really.
The question, in case you forgot, was: "Is the game being designed to force people to use the Crown Store?"
You've been trying to warp that into, "are there benefits available exclusively to subscribers?" Which, yes, there are exclusive perks for subscribers. But you're not forced to purchase them. The game is entirely playable, and even gets updates, if you never spend a dime after buying the box. So, to answer the question that was actually asked, then no. However, you've spent pages, trying to re-contextualize all of the added content as necessary, and as a result compulsory. Which, you know, it's not.
@starkerealm
That's the subject of the thread. Read the actual OP
That's also the actual poll subject. You know, the question people are actually voting on? That thing.
If he'd asked, "Do you think that ZOS is making some utility items artificially rare to promote the crown store?" That'd be a different question with a different answer. If he'd said anything about, all the systems being added to the game that are gated behind the subscription or DLC purchases, then you might have a point. But he didn't. He was talking about stuff like the XP pots. At which point, "forced?" No.
If CP was still uncapped, he might have a stronger argument for that, because then the XP pots simply put you ahead of other players, instead of pushing you towards the finish line faster.
But, with the game that actually exists? No, it's not forced.
Is ZoS taking advantage of the fact that Crown Store items are trivial to create, versus actual content, and are much more lucrative? Yes.
Stovahkiin wrote: »Stovahkiin wrote: »Absolutely not, while I don't agree with all of Zeni's recent marketing decisions, we certainly are not being forced to buy things from the CS. After all, the majority of items in the crown store are cosmetic anyway; and the last time I checked, I was not being forced in any way, shape, or form to pay for them.
If you feel the unbearable urge to quickly and easily buy items that are also available through other methods, then that's your problem, no one is forcing it on you.
So... you think its reasonable to ask the average player to have 25 milion gold for the houses and who knows how much more for furniture?
Do you have that much gold? Would you spend it all on this IF you wanted it?
Is there actually a house on the pts that costs that much or are you making that number up to make you feel better about your arguement? I haven't been on the pts myself but the most I've heard of a house costing was like 3m
Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »If people havent seen it happen before they might miss the writing on the wall. But its been slowly moving in that direction since its introduction. I dont have a problem with MTs. But the addition of Motifs, the harsh drop rates of those motifs and the Ambrosia (it costs so much at this point that using any of the ingredients would be a waste......just think about that for a moment in context of a video game an item costs so much that no one would risk using it for its intended purpose). And why? Because the harder it is to get in game, the more likely they are to turn to the store. There hasnt been a single new mount added to the game to be obtained through in game means. If you want a new mount, you have to get it in the Store, and cross your fingers you have the funds and the time on your hands to catch it. Otherwise, youll have to wait til they feel like adding it to the Crown Crates so you can spend 3-4 times its initial LTO cost so you can obtain it. Theyre now adding Crown Store exclusive and LTO Motifs. With the the exclusives having no means of actually obtaining in-game style material. Forcing players to rely on Mimic Stones.
People can deny it all they want. But we've hit a turning point in the road with MTs. From here on out, the grip will continue to get tighter.